The Survival Medicine Garden

Money doesn’t grow on trees but remedies do grow on plants, or in them, as it were. Over the years I’ve grown quite a few different medicinal plants from all over the globe. The diversity has been very interesting to study and has been a great diversion. However in a pinch when I need a medicinal plant to treat traumatic injury and I run to the garden, the plants I am most seeking are very common ones and frankly they are the best.

For instance, if someone in my family has a canker sore or is trying to recover from dental surgery, I turn immediately to Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris) and I don’t know of anything else that works better to resolve the inflammation and ease the pain. If I am to treat a deep cut, I go immediately to the Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) patch where it is growing dense and green on the landscape. Very little preparation is required — the clean and turgid plant is worried to a juice and applied directly. I do this prior to washing the wound, as an immediate poultice to stem bleeding and kill pain. Later, more involved therapies like Epsom salt soaks may be needed, but for the purpose of first-aid, there is nothing like the plain plant. Then, when the stimulation of life overcomes me and another kind of emergency begins to occur — psychological stress that can drive one crazy, I turn again to plants to make life more immediately, what, reasonable? Wild lettuce (Lactuca sativa) makes a fine salad and when I eat this, it relaxes me. Bodily pain diminishes. If I’m looking for an even bigger dose of relaxation, then Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) takes my hand and leads me to dreamland. I have even been known to nap in the valerian patch, chewing on a leaf… All these herbs, and other common ones I haven’t yet mentioned (see below) are easy to grow in the summer garden. These kinds of herbs stay usable in one form or another for an unusually long period of time, often proffering several harvest windows: winter roots, spring greens, and in the summer, flowers. Learning to use all the different parts of the Valerian plant, it can be enjoyed in one form or another for 12 months out of the year!

The above are the main herbs that I consider to be most useful for first-aid and emergency use. These are all fast-growing medicinals that can be ready for harvest in a single season or less. It is even reasonable to expect that these could be planted at a time of great need and soon give great help!

Yes, yarrow for deep cut with heavy bleeding stops the bleeding, prevents the swelling and speeds healing.
Have used many times while gardening at the historic village where I am the gardener and visitors are always amazed.
Valerian is great for sleepless nights.
Using Heal-All now for a canker sore.

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About

Richo is an internationally recognized expert on the cultivation, processing and usage of medicinal plants. He is the author of the popular herbal, Making Plant Medicine. His life-long interest in seed saving lead to extensive travel and plant exploration, largely in the USA and Africa but also in South America, China and Europe. This collection of seeds, including numerous unique introductions and rare plants as well as many common medicinal plants and permacultural trees, is currently conserved and multiplied in his greenhouses and gardens.

Strictly Medicinal, LLC is the name of this organic seed company and nursery based in Williams, Oregon. The mission is to sow seeds worldwide for the benefit of people, plants and the planet.